“The Sanders campaign, however, broke dramatically with over a century of U.S. political history. Extensive political science research, notably the work of Thomas Ferguson, has shown convincingly that elections are pretty much bought. For example, campaign spending alone is a remarkably good predictor of electoral success, and support of corporate power and private wealth is a virtual prerequisite even for participation in the political arena.” PoliticalWealthSupportElectionBrokeParticipationPolitical Science Author:Noam Chomsky
“Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, but for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists. An education system flushed with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. We've defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own.” PeopleChildrenDifferentRealitySchoolBeautifulWealthShareStudentsPoliticianNeighborhoodEducation SystemYoung And Beautiful Author:Donald Trump
“Yahweh demanded justice for the poor, compassion and equality for foreigners and refugees, systemic redress for poverty, structural mechanisms to protect the homeless and family-less from abuse and destitution, fair and equitable distribution of land, integrity in the judicial system, humility, simplicity and morality in the government (as opposed to wealth, women and weapons), etc. etc. If you want that kind of society, you need to be faithful to the living God.” KindWealthJusticePoorCompassionPovertyHumilityMoralityIntegrityProtectAbuseSimplicityFaithfulHomelessRefugeeJudicialBeing Faithful Author:Christopher J. H. Wright
“If the population curve is on an exponential growth, and the resources are on an exponential decline, what happens first is you get increases in wealth discrepancy, which means that you get rich pockets of gated communities with security guards outside them, and you get more and more poverty outside that area.” MeanGrowthCommunityWealthPovertyRichSecurityGet Rich Author:Neill Blomkamp
“The reason why nothing sticks to Trump - or very little sticks to Trump - is that Trump created his brand idea that has to do with being the guy who gets away from it. It's this ultimate power through wealth and this dream that represents in an age of tremendous economic precariousness and constrained options for so many people - that watching Trump be able to do whatever he wants to whoever he wants is this obvious vicarious kind of thrill for a certain demographic.” PeopleKindReasonDreamAgeGuyWealthEconomicUltimateObviousGet Away Author:Naomi Klein
“I think we'll start defining wealth and success differently and develop new approaches to consumption. Things that have always signified wealth and security - home ownership, new cars, luxury goods - have become a burden for many people and will be replaced by more experiential consumption like travel and recreation, self-improvement, and so on. By divesting themselves of certain big-ticket possessions that have been keeping them tied down, people will gain a new freedom to live more meaningful lives. Changes in consumption and lifestyle are key to Great Resets.” PeopleThinkingHomeWealthSecurityCarPossessionBurdenMeaningfulLifestyleLife ChangingOwnershipReplacedMeaningful LifeNew Car Author:Richard Florida
“The psychology of the saver and the psychology of the investor is very closely connected with Keynes' distinction between risk and uncertainty. When the future is uncertain, he thought that a lot of saving would be directed towards securing, securing more, getting more security in the present, rather than building wealth in the future, which was the classical view, you save in order to invest, in order to consume more later on. What he had called the propensity to hoard or liquidity preference would normally be stronger than the inducement to invest.” WealthPsychologyRiskSecurityBuildingStrongerUncertaintyInvestors Author:Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky
“When you think of everything in terms of just money, then almost nothing is enough. I mean, how much money is enough? Because it's hard to translate money into goods. And I think people, once, I think there's a lot things can believe, and once they start thinking about wealth in terms of money, they lose the idea of enough-ness.” PeopleThinkingBelieveMeanEnoughTermWealthTranslate Author:Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky
“I love creating things, and as an entrepreneur, I've taken on quite a lot of major corporations and done well. Capitalism is the only system that works, but it has its flaws; for one, it brings great wealth to only a few people. That wealth obviously brings extreme responsibility.” PeopleDoneWealthResponsibilityTakenCapitalismEntrepreneurFlaws Author:Richard Branson
“The rise of the prosperity gospel is one of the great challenges to the true message of Jesus Christ. While not an expressly Western problem, the promises of this false teaching are often deeply rooted in Western materialism and worldly wealth. Teachers focus on a temporal reward as evidence of God's blessing, often ignoring the greater issues of justice, reconciliation, and redemption so needed in the world today.” WorldProblemTodayJesusChristChallengesWealthJusticeFocusTeacherTeachingPromiseBlessingEvidenceJesus ChristWesternProsperityRedemptionMaterialismWorldlyReconciliation Author:Ed McBain
“If we understand the dangers of materialism, it will help liberate us to experience the joys of Christ-centered stewardship. Jesus speaks of the "deceitfulness of wealth" . The psalmist warns, "Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them" . The dangers of materialism are far-reaching. We should not think that we're immune to the value-changing nature of wealth.” ThinkingHeartHelpingJoyJesusSpeakWealthDangerMaterialismStewardship Author:Randy Alcorn
“I believe the only way to break the power of materialism is first, to see ourselves as stewards that God has entrusted these money and possessions to, and second, to give. Jesus says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive". As long as I still have something, I believe I own it. But when I give it away, I relinquish the control, power, and prestige that come with wealth.” GivingBelieveLongJesusI BelieveWealthBreakBlessedPossessionMaterialismPrestige Author:Randy Alcorn
“I believe that beyond the arena of art, the world would be a much better place if centered around a feminine perspective. The world has been really messed up by greedy white men who only work towards an agenda of personal wealth and power. It is this patriarchy of the past couple thousand years that causes so much strife. If the world was female-centered and if the dominant spirituality was based on the feminine and the earth, then human beings would know much more joy, peace, and harmony.” MenWorldBelieveArtEarthPastJoySpiritualityI BelieveWealthPerspectiveCoupleHarmonyFemininePatriarchyGreedyPeace And Harmony Author:Mark Ryden
“I figured, I am a product of the opportunity the country provided, and I understand the challenges of the middle class and the lower class, and I clearly understand the dynamics at the highest levels of wealth within the country and across this global world. It became clear to me that I could represent the people of Texas - I could represent those people, that segment of society that I came from.” PeopleWorldCountryOpportunityChallengesWealthMiddle Class Author:Ricardo Sanchez
“It seems when the madness sets in the mix of wealth and seductiveness, it's never the first generation that acquired the wealth; they had to be quite savvy. That savvy-ness probably meant you were some sort of alpha person. That alpha stuff in the later generations, you still have the intelligence, but it tends to manifest itself in bipolar disorders and inestimable amounts of depression.” WealthMadnessManifestBipolarSavvyBipolar Disorder Author:Lawrence Douglas
“The powershift began already several years ago, under the Bush administration, when the dollar became very volatile and started declining. That is when China shifted from having almost 100 percent of its reserves in dollars to 75 percent. Some countries went completely out of the dollar. The dollar, for all intents and purposes, lost its special reserve status and people starting talking about a portfolio, or basket, approach as a store of wealth instead of the dollar.” PeopleCountryPurposeWealthSpecial Author:Joseph Stiglitz
“We're a culture that's obsessed with people who make and who squander ridiculous amounts of wealth, which seemed an obsession well worth interrogating in a novel. That probably accounts for what some have called the book's "sweeping" feel, but I don't know that I set out to be cinematic. I wouldn't know how to do that in a novel, specifically.” PeopleCultureWealthNovelRidiculousObsessionObsessed Author:Matthew Specktor
“"Hypercoherence" is one of the most dangerous threats to the long-term survival of our civilization. Hypercoherence is the close efficient linkage of all parts of the world economic, communication and transport systems. It has been crucial in the spread of great innovations, the rise of world wealth, and even the dissemination of democratic concepts and ethical values and the defeat of oppressive regimes.” WorldValuesWealthEconomicDangerousCommunicationSurvivalInnovationThreatDemocraticDefeatSpreadEthicalTransport Author:Arthur Demarest
“We need a wealth tax that on a one-time basis is going to take back at least some small fraction of the great windfall that the upper 1 percent, or 5 percent and pay down the government debt, pay back the federal debt because we can't put this on the next generation or they're going to be buried paying taxes.” WealthTaxesNext Generation Author:David Stockman
“There is a wealth of knowledge to be understood from others' work, don't get me wrong, and when I do stumble upon others' work, it's not lost on me.” Wealth Author:Melissa Leo
“Something that could bring you wealth and fame could also be your end, your undoing.” WealthFame Author:Philip Seymour Hoffman
“If you get a flow of credit increasing, as we've seen in the last few years - that flow of credit didn't go to more wealth accumulation as we normally use the term in economics, as capital goods. What you got is an increase in bubbles of one kind or another.” KindTermWealthBubbles Author:Joseph Stiglitz
“When you think of policies that are going to address inequality of wealth, you have to be very thoughtful about what economists call "incidence of taxes." If most of the savings is being done by capitalists, and you tax the return on capital, then they will have less to invest. That would mean, over the long run, that the rate of interest would go up. That would therefore undo some of the intent to lower the income of capitalists.” ThinkingMeanLongDoneRunningInterestWealthPolicyTaxesRateInequalityThoughtfulCapitalistEconomist Author:Joseph Stiglitz
“Companies are missing out on phenomenal skills and capabilities of experienced older job hunters: wealth of knowledge, expertise, seasoning, maturity. Companies need to be reminded of that.” WealthMissingMaturityCapabilityExpertisePhenomenalMissing Out Author:Nick Corcodilos
“During the Reagan eighties, the idea that money was a good thing - it was good to be rich; that wealth was a reflection of your character. We see this today in perceptions of Donald Trump: the idea that money is an expression of success and even goodness. I compare that with my dad's generation, where the American Dream was about giving your kids a better life, but not just in material terms. The American Dream was also about doing something good in the world. The home was at the center of the dream, but home also represented community, shelter, and stability for your family.” WorldGivingCharacterHomeDreamKidsTodayTermCommunityWealthRichGoodnessPerceptionReflectionGood ThingsCompareOur FamilyStabilityAmerican DreamBetter Life Author:Lauren Greenfield
“The 1970s were the height of social mobility. College was accessible. My grandfather was a poor immigrant who went to a public school in Ohio, and my father went to Harvard. That wasn't unusual. There was a feeling that anything was possible and you didn't have to be born into money to have a successful life. Now, people don't believe in the idea that anything is possible. We have more inequality than we've had ever before and a greater concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.” PeopleBelieveFeelingsSchoolFatherWealthPoorSuccessfulCollegeInequalityConcentrationUnusualGrandfatherPublic SchoolMy GrandfatherAnything Is PossibleSuccessful Life Author:Lauren Greenfield
“The economist Juliet Schor talks about how our reference group has changed over the last twenty-five years. As we spend less time with our neighbors, we're spending more time with people we know from TV and social media, and this becomes our new reference group. The media is full of images of people with wealth, and we're comparing ourselves to them and aspiring to what they have. Instead of keeping up with the Joneses family, we're trying to keep up with the Kardashians, even though it's completely unrealistic.” PeopleTryingWealthChangedSocial MediaNeighborCompareEconomistJuliet Author:Lauren Greenfield
“These days, the media is defining what cultural capital is, and it's easily learned. If you have money, anything can be bought. We see this in China and Russia with what I call the "Bling Dynasty and New Oligarchy" in Generation Wealth. As people got rich and everybody started buying Louis Vuitton bags, it became clear that to distinguish yourself you had to have more than an expensive bag. People began to want the things that money is not supposed to be able to buy - history, tradition, education, and culture.” PeopleCultureWealthRichTraditionLouis Vuitton Author:Lauren Greenfield
“I'm constantly trying to deconstruct what I see and to show its beauty and its attraction. I use bright colors and strobes to get that full reflection. I want to acknowledge and reference the attraction of wealth. But I'm also looking for the layer that reveals how wealth doesn't fulfill its promise.” TryingWealthPromiseReflectionAttractionAcknowledge Author:Lauren Greenfield
“We aren't protecting the people who most need it when those who can contribute to the country's success emigrate. Contrary to what some claim, I am not getting rid of the wealth tax to help the rich.” PeopleHelpingWealthRichTaxes Author:Emmanuel Macron
“Student debt is structured to be a burden for life. The indebted cannot declare bankruptcy, unlike Donald Trump. Current student debt is estimated to be over $1.45 trillion. There are ample resources for that simply from waste, including the bloated military and the enormous concentrated private wealth that has accumulated in the financial and general corporate sector under neoliberal policies. There is no economic reason why free education cannot flourish from schools through colleges and university. The barriers are not economic but rather political decisions.” ReasonSchoolPoliticalWealthDecisionEconomicMilitaryPolicyStudentsCollegeFinancialBurdenBarriersBankruptcy Author:Noam Chomsky
“Most people who have wealth came from nothing or their parents came from nothing. And this idea that anyone can grow wealth is central to what we do.” PeopleParentWealth Author:Noah Kerner
“In fact, I have a problem with too much money... I can't reinvest it fast enough, and because I reinvest it, more money comes in. Yes, the rich do get richer.” I CanEnoughProblemWealthBusinessRichToo MuchSelf ImprovementInvestingMore MoneyBusiness SuccessRich PeopleRich MoneyRich Person Author:Robert Kiyosaki
“The 80s and 90s were the beginning of the hollowing out of the American little democracy. It started with Reagan and went to Bill NAFTA Clinton! Hey, but who's paying attention to history!? What's stunning is how many people think Trump is the beginning of fascism. He's the result of many, many years of corporate plunder and spineless Democrats and greedy, racist Republicans. The concentration of wealth, the monopolized media, basically a march toward a fractured Republic. We are broken!” PeopleThinkingWealthAttentionDemocracyBrokenRepublicanClintonDemocratPay AttentionConcentrationRacistMarchFascismGreedyStunning Author:Eddie Pepitone
“I do think that some of my songs, like Take a Minute, are like the train between the two worlds. It starts out with the question of "how did Gandhi ever withstand the hunger strikes and all / he didn't do it to gain power or money as I recall," and its sweep reaches all the way to this part of the world. I think maybe I'm a translator, because I lived in both worlds and truly understand them. I understand the discontent that comes from not having. But I also understand the anxiety that comes from wealth and convenience.” ThinkingWorldSongWealthAnxietyTrainHungerDiscontentTranslators Author:K'naan
“There's no necessary connection between maximizing social utility or economic wealth and creating a flourishing democracy. The first does not guarantee the second. The only way to create a flourishing democracy is to find ways to reason together about the big questions, including hard questions about justice and the common good, to reason together about these questions so that we as citizens can decide how to shape the forces that govern our lives.” ReasonTogetherWealthJusticeCommonDemocracyEconomicUtilityCommon Good Author:Michael Sandel
“We need to create jobs for 300,000 youth graduating from high school in the next three years. We need to produce growth so we can have an economic system that can turn our natural wealth into a productive system. We need services, because poverty reduction cannot take place without effective citizenship.” SchoolGrowthNaturalWealthPovertyEconomicYouthHigh SchoolProductiveGraduatesCitizenship Author:Ashraf Ghani
“Despite all of the civil rights gains of the past several decades, when it comes to economic opportunity, African Americans and Latinos still experience far more unemployment than do whites and Asians, average wages are lower, and household wealth is lower. A smaller percentage of African Americans and Latinos attend, and complete, college, than is the case with whites and Asians, and a higher percentage end up in prison. All of these are indicators of massive disparities in opportunity, and these disparities are mirrored in poverty data.” PastOpportunityWealthPovertyEconomicCollegePrisonCivil RightsAfrican AmericanLatino Author:Sasha Abramsky
“Ironically, though our society of affluence brings safety and stability, it doesn't bring psychological health. As wealth goes up, suicide and depression rates tend to go up. I read one study that compared women in North America with women in Nigeria, and the group with the highest rates of depression was urban North American women, which is the wealthiest. Now, there are obviously huge stresses that come with poverty, but the poorer the society, the more collaborative people have to be.” PeopleWealthPovertyStudyStressSafetySuicideRatePsychologicalStabilityUrbanNigeria Author:Sebastian Junger
“Vladimir Putin is the wealthiest man on the planet, for sure. But this is different to the wealth of a Bill Gates or a Warren Buffett, a Carlos Slim or a Sergey Brin. They stay wealthy whether it is Barack Obama or Donald Trump in power. Putin's wealth depends on him staying in power. It is all about controlling the budget, the hard currency reserves and keeping under his thumb the oligarchs who cannot move their money without his permission. It is something close to a trillion dollars that he can control and move.” MenDifferentMovingWealthBarackGatesWealthyCurrencyBuffettWarren Buffet Author:Garry Kasparov
“I promised to bring change to Washington. The underlying reason for the economic mess we're in has been building for years. It's a fundamental imbalance in which the top 1 percent now gets almost a quarter of all national income. We haven't seen income and wealth this concentrated since the late nineteen twenties, and we all know what happened then - the Great Depression. We'll never really get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession until we fix this basic problem.” ReasonProblemWealthEconomicBuildingMessGreat Depression Author:Barack Obama
“Countries were told they had no incentives because of social ownership. The solution was privatization and profit, profit, profit. Privatization would replace inefficient state ownership, and the profit system plus the huge defense cutbacks would let them take existing resources and an increase in consumption. Worries about distribution and competition or even concerns about democratic processes being undermined by excessive concentration of wealth could be addressed later.” CountryWealthWorrySolutionsConcernCompetitionDemocraticConcentrationOwnership Author:Joseph Stiglitz
“The grand larceny that occurred in Russia, the corruption that resulted in nine or ten people getting enormous wealth through loans-for-shares, was condoned because it allowed the reelection of Boris Yeltsin.” PeopleWealthCorruption Author:Joseph Stiglitz
“Put yourself in the shoes of one of these oligarchs who has been given a gift of $10 billion. Russia is in a deep depression. Nobody's investing. There is a widespread political consensus that the way you got your wealth is illegitimate.” PoliticalWealthConsensus Author:Joseph Stiglitz
“No one can dictate purpose to another. We discover it for ourselves. Typically leaders know what makes them tick so they do have a purpose, be it to advance their career, achieve some wealth, and be recognized for their efforts. Where they need help is reminding themselves of why they chose their career and their company. They also need to decide periodically if they need to do something new and different. Purpose is an inner compass that points us in the right direction.” DifferentHelpingPurposeWealthEffortLeaderAchieveSomething NewCompassNeed Help Author:John Baldoni
“Athletes often start life at the opposite end of the wealth and prestige spectrum, but as soon as they exhibit an unusual talent for swinging a bat or sinking a free-throw they may find that the rules have been suspended for them. They are waved through school and into the pros, and incidents of bad behavior are overlooked or covered up.” MayHas BeensEndsSchoolWealthTalentBehaviorOppositesAthleteCoveredUnusualBatsIncidentsSpectrumExhibitsSinkingPrestigeOverlookedSuspendedBad BehaviorFree ThrowCovered Up Author:Jeffrey Kluger
“There is this fashionable progressive notion that everything is so completely political that the idea we could have some sort of neutral legal process is practically utopian - because we all know that the more money you have, the more rights you can exercise in this society. But I don't think that you deal with income inequality by limiting the First Amendment rights of affluent people. I'd rather see people screw around with the tax code to redistribute wealth a little bit than screw around with the First Amendment.” PeopleThinkingPoliticalWealthExerciseTaxesInequalityCodeProgressiveFirst AmendmentFashionableUtopian Author:Wendy Kaminer
“The British use a system where the profits a corporation reports to shareholders is what they pay taxes on. Whereas in America we require corporations to keep two sets of books, one for shareholders and one for the IRS, and the IRS records are secret. For publicly-traded companies, the British system would tend to align the interests of the government with the interests of the company because the company wants to report the biggest possible profit. Though, all wealthy countries have high taxes as wealth requires lots of common goods, from clean water to public education to a justice system.” BookCountryInterestWaterWealthJusticeCommonSecretTaxesWealthyCommon GoodJustice SystemPublic EducationClean Water Author:David Cay Johnston
“Turkey, as an ex-imperial power, is all in favor of empires guaranteeing law and order on its borders. Turkey's and America's basic interests with regard to Iraq are identical. They both want a stable and rational Iraq that would use its considerable oil wealth in order to improve its own lot. But there doesn't seem to be very much prospect of that at the moment.” MomentsInterestWealthRationalLaw And Order Author:Andrew Mango